LOS ANGELES, CA - The winners of the 2003 Directors Guild of America Outstanding Directorial Achievement Awards and the recipients of the DGA's 2004 Lifetime Achievement Awards were announced tonight at the 56th Annual DGA Awards Dinner at the Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles.

The DGA's Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Feature Film has traditionally served as a near-perfect barometer for the Academy Award for Best Director. Only six times since the DGA Award's inception in 1949 has the winner not gone on to receive the Academy Award for Best Director.

The winners of the 2003 Directors Guild of America Awards for Outstanding Directorial Achievement, and the recipients of the Guild's 2004 Lifetime Achievement Awards, are:

Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Feature Film for 2003

PETER JACKSONThe Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (New Line Cinema)

Mr. Jackson's Directorial Team:

Unit Production Managers: Nikolas Korda, Zane Weiner

First Assistant Director: Carolynne Cunningham

Key Second Assistant Directors: Guy Campbell, Marc Ashton

This was Mr. Jackson's third nomination. Mr. Jackson has received two previous nominations for The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001) and The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002).

This was Mike Nichols' fourth DGA nomination and his first in the category of Movies for Television. He has been nominated for three of his feature films: Working Girl in 1988, The Graduate in 1967, and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? in 1966. He won the DGA Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Feature Film for The Graduate.